“Is he all right?” he asked.
“Fast asleep already.” She sat on the edge of the table. “Now what do we do?”
“Nothing we can do until Savary gets back from Gran-ville with some sort of message.”
“And what if there isn’t any message?”
“Oh, I’ll think of something. Now sit down and have a nice cup of tea.”
She shook her head. “We Ve got a choice of either bramble or beet tea and, tonight, I just can’t face either.”
“Oh, ye of little faith.” Gallagher produced the packet of China tea which Chevalier had given him that morning at the market.
She started to laugh helplessly and put her arms around his neck. “Sean Gallagher, what would I do without you?”
Eisenhower was in full uniform for he’d been attending a dinner party with the prime minister when he’d received Munro’s message. He paced up and down the library at Hayes Lodge, extremely agitated. “Is there no way we can put someone in?”
“If you mean a commando unit, I don’t think so, sir. The most heavily defended coast in Europe.”
Eisenhower nodded. “What you’re really saying is that it’s impossible to get him out.”
“No, sir, but very, very difficult. It’s a small island, General. It’s not like hiding someone on the back of a truck and driving three hundred miles overnight to the Pyrenees or arranging for one of our Lysanders to fly in to pick him up.”
“Right, then get him across to France where you can fix those things.”
“Our information is that he’s not capable of traveling.”
“For God’s sake, Munro, everything could hang on this. The whole invasion. Months of planning.”
Munro cleared his throat and nervously for him. “If worse came to worst, General, would you be willing to consider Colonel Kelso as expendable?”
Eisenhower stopped pacing. “You mean have him executed?”
“Something like that.”
“God help me, but if there’s nothing else for it, then so be it.” Eisenhower walked up to the huge wall map of western Europe. “Six thousand ships, thousands of planes, two million men and the war in balance. If they find out our exact points of landing, they’ll mass everything they’ve got.” He turned. “Intelligence reported a Rommel speech of a few weeks ago in which he said just that. That the war would be won or lost on those beaches.”
“I know, General.”
“And you ask is Kelso expendable?” Eisenhower sighed heavily. “If you can save him, do. If you can’t…” He shrugged. “In any case, considering what you’ve already said about the Jersey situation, how would you go about getting an agent in? I should think a new face would stick out like a sore thumb.”
“That’s true, General. We’ll have to think about it.”
Jack Carter, standing respectfully quiet by the flre, coughed. “There is one way, General.”
“What’s that, Captain?” Eisenhower inquired.
“The best place to hide a tree is in a wood. It seems to me the people who are most free to come and go are the Germans themselves. I mean, new personnel must be posted there all the time.”
Eisenhower turned sharply to Munro. “He’s got a point. Have you got any people capable of that kind of work?”
Munro nodded. “Here and there, sir. It’s a rare skill. Not just a question of speaking fluent German, but thinking like a German and that isn’t easy.”
Eisenhower said, ‘I’ll give you a week, Brigadier. One week and I expect you to have this matter resolved.”
“My word on it, sir.”
Munro walked out briskly, Carter limping along behind. “Radio Cresson in Granville to relay a message to Gallagher in Jersey saying someone will be with him by Thursday.”
“Are you sure, sir?”
“Of course I am,” Munro said cheerfully. “That was a masterly suggestion of yours in there, Jack. Best place to hide a tree is in a wood. I like that.”
“Thank you very much, sir.”
“German personnel moving in and out all the time. What would one new arrival be among many, especially if provided with the right kind of credentials?”
“It would take a very special man, sir.”
“Come off it, Jack,” Munro said as they reached the street and the car. “There’s only one man for this job. You know it and I know it. Only one man capable of playing a Nazi to the hilt and ruthless enough to put a bullet between Kel-so’s eyes if necessary. Harry Martineau.”